U.S. Pharmacopeia pays $9.25M for land to expand headquarters

The U.S. Pharmacopeia Convention has made plans to expand its headquarters in Rockville, where it bought 2.2 neighboring acres from JBG Cos. of Chevy Chase for $9.25 million, according to state assessment records.

"This transaction with USP further expands the private sector presence in this mixed-use community, which already includes more than 7,000 employees from federal agencies and contractors including NIH, FDA and HHS," JBG principal Rod Lawrence said in a statement.

JBG sold 12709 Twinbrook Parkway, part of its Twinbrook Station complex, to the nonprofit, which sets public standards for health care products. USP recently received site plan approval from the Montgomery County Planning Board for a 150,000-square-foot office and laboratory expansion of its headquarters.

The transaction is part of JBG's long-term commitment to the Twinbrook submarket, an established biosciences hub and employment center that is rapidly emerging as a destination mixed-use neighborhood.

"We are very pleased that USP is making an additional investment in the County and that they are continuing to expand adjacent to the mixed use center at Twinbrook Station," Steven A. Silverman, director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, said in the statement.

While taking plans for the USP expansion through the county approval process, JBG also secured approvals for a 106,580-square-foot office or lab building at 5615 Fishers Lane, an adjacent site. The 5615 Fishers Lane site is being actively marketed by JBG, represented by Grubb & Ellis.

Both 5615 Fishers Lane and the USP expansion will deliver adjacent to JBG's Twinbrook Station project, a 2.2 million-square-foot, transit-oriented project on the Metro Red Line that the company is developing with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

For USP, which expanded its headquarters in 2007, the down market for

real estate made this a good time to buy the property for future growth.

"We don't have any immediate plans to expand," said Laura Provan, USP's director of media relations. "We bought this as a hedge against future expansion which could happen two or three years down the road."